Helen Martin: Oi! Scientists! Housework is just as strenuous as DIY

German medical research, spanning several countries including the UK, say men over 65 stay fitter because they do DIY and gardening, while women do “routine cleaning and cooking” for hours on end which “is not very physically active”.

The co-authors are both men – no surprise to the majority of women in Britain who spend an average four hours a day on housework.

Many men, including medics in this case, see housework as waving a feather duster, peeling a few tatties and plumping up the odd cushion.

Listen chaps, it’s sheer elbow grease. Cleaning wall tiles in the bathroom, bending and reaching to clean the bath, mopping and drying the floor so no-one slips on it, polishing windows and mirrors, lifting mattresses to change bed linen, stretching up to clean cupboards, down to vacuum under the bed … it all ends in sweat and occasional muscle strain. Sometimes academics are removed from reality.